Brady nodded. “Me, too, buddy.”
Piper tightened her fists in her lap, hurting for Connor, for Brady. Scott and Pam had only been gone nine months. Their deaths had to still be a raw and confusing subject for Connor.
After another minute or two of strained silence in the truck, Piper searched for another joke to tell, a distracting question to redirect Connor’s thoughts and lighten the mood. Or was that even the right move? Should she follow Brady’s lead and let Connor work through this moment on his own? All she knew was that her heart hurt for the little boy, and her instinct was to do something, anything, to put a smile back on his face. But what did she know about parenting?
While she was debating, Connor said, “Hey, Piper?”
“Yes, sweetie?”
“What do you call a wet bear?”
She released the breath she held and flashed a warm smile at the boy. “I don’t know.”
“A drizzily bear.” He shot her a quick grin, then turned back to his window, falling quiet again. “My dad told me that one.”
“That’s a good one,” she said and patted his knobby knee.
Connor twisted his mouth and wrinkled his nose. “My mom and dad died in a car accident.”
Her grip on his knee tightened. “I know, sweetie. I’m so sorry.”
“I live with Uncle Brady and Grampa now. At the Double M.”
Piper nodded. “Do you like the ranch?”
His face brightened a bit. “It smells bad ’cause of all the animal poop, but you get used to it.”
She couldn’t help but snort a chuckle at the boy’s bluntness. Having grown up on the ranch, she’d never really noticed or cared about the odors that accompanied all the animals. For her, the scents of oiled leather and freshly cut alfalfa were sweeter than roses.
“Riding horses and helping Uncle Brady with the cows is fun,” Connor added.
“Well, I’ve been away from the ranch for a lot of months, so my riding may be rusty.” She tipped her head and gave the boy a dubious frown. “Would you help me with my horse while I’m visiting this week?”
Connor sat taller and grinned. “Sure! I’m good at saddling and riding.” He glanced to his uncle, adding, “Aren’t I, Brady?”
“You are, little man. That you are.” Brady sent Connor a proud grin as he met his nephew’s gaze in the mirror. “When we get home, Grampa will have dinner waiting, so I want you to go straight back to the house and wash up. Okay?”
“Y’sir.”
Home. Piper turned her attention to the scenery passing outside her window. She’d been so absorbed in Connor that she’d not realized how close they were getting to the Double M. The beef-cattle ranch had been in her family for three generations. She’d grown up around muddy boots, bleating calves and horse tails swishing away flies. Her parents and brothers still lived on and worked the ranch, and someday she’d inherit one third of the Double M.
But was the ranch still her home? She’d been gone seven years. Seven eventful years. She’d done a lot of growing up since she left the Double M. She’d earned her degree in finance, gotten her first nine-to-five job with a finance company, set herself up in an apartment that she’d decorated to her taste.
And she’d made the toughest decisions of her life to give birth to, then give away, Brady’s baby.
She swallowed hard and pressed her hand to her stomach. The memory always caused a guilty roil in her gut. She’d made the best decision she could as a scared eighteen-year-old, but that didn’t mean she didn’t constantly second-guess herself.
As Brady took an unexpected exit from the interstate, Piper glanced up, confused. “Where are you going?”
He angled his head toward her. “Ice cream. Remember?”
Connor sat taller, and his face brightened. “Yay! I’m gonna get chocolate, too, Piper!”
“One scoop, buddy. And you have to promise to eat your vegetables at dinner,” Brady said, one eyebrow arched.
She shook her head slightly. When had Brady turned into such a...a...parent?
The answer came to her, and her stomach curled in on itself. She really had no appetite for ice cream. No desire to extend the awkwardness between her and Brady. She only wanted to get to the ranch and decompress after her flight, unwind the tension that had coiled in her the instant she’d spotted Brady. But she’d be damned if she’d be party to disappointing Connor, a boy whose world had been so thoroughly devastated in recent months. For Connor’s sake, she’d paste on a smile, eat a chocolate ice cream cone and endure a few more taut minutes playing nice with the one man who still had the power to break her heart.
Ken didn’t recognize the cowboy who’d met Piper at the airport. Nor did he know anything about the little boy. The guy wasn’t one of her brothers. He’d seen the pictures of them she had on her desk at the office...and stored in her laptop. Irritation crawled through him. He didn’t like the idea that Piper had people in her life that he didn’t have at least a little information on.
Whoever the guy was, Piper had seemed startled to see him. She’d been cool and standoffish at first, but when that klutz with his big duffel had knocked her into the cowboy, he had been quick to catch her, slow to release her. Piper and the cowboy had shared a look that hinted at a history together. A history that might not be completely in the past. Something hot and not-yet smothered.
Hatred had burned his gut, and he’d wanted to charge across the airport and grab the randy cowboy by the throat. He’d vibrated with the urge to tear up the mystery rancher and leave no question that Piper was his.
But doing so would blow his cover, would mean leaving the concealed post he’d staked out ahead of Piper’s arrival. It was too soon to let her know he was here, that he’d come to Colorado to be with her, to prove to her that they belonged together.
Now, from the rental car he’d had waiting in the short-term parking lot since his arrival two hours ahead of Piper, he followed the cowboy’s pickup truck from a cautious distance, across the plain at the foot of the Rocky Mountains where crops, pastures and farms dotted the landscape.
Not wanting to be noticed, he hung back when the truck left the interstate, waited impatiently while they stopped for ice cream, then continued following from a distance as they headed northeast on a state road. He managed to keep Piper and the cowboy in sight until they turned in at a gravel driveway. Ken slowed as he drove past the rutted road the pickup had taken and studied a crude, stripped-log entry arch. Hanging from the top of the arch, a sun-aged wooden sign greeted people with Welcome to the Double M.
He paused long enough to search for GPS coordinates with his phone, planning to use satellite images to scope out the terrain tonight from his motel room. He had a cell signal, but it was mediocre at best. He grunted his disgust. Why would anyone in their right mind want to live out here in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of smelly cows? He could give Piper so much more than this!
He shook his head. No, not could...he would give Piper more. He would show her their destinies were locked, intertwined. He would save her from this dirt hole in the middle of Nothing, Colorado. He’d even take her away from Boston, if needed. They’d find a place where no one could find them, no one could distract her, no one could interfere with his plans for the future with Piper. His Piper. His soul mate.
He’d make it happen. And just like he’d eliminated Ron Sandburg, he’d get rid of anything or anyone who stood in his way.